Philadelphia Eagles perfect team to start Texas Stadium’s swan song

When it first opened its chain-link gates and concrete restroom amenities in 1971, Texas Stadium was a palace.

Built for a princely $35 million, the then-new home of the Dallas Cowboys was team president Tex Schramm’s response to the growing concern about football on television.

With luxury suites, covered seating and booted cheerleaders to gawk at, Tex sought to give stadium-goers a better game experience than they could find at home watching the family Sony.

And for most of the next 25 years, it worked. A great seat is a great seat, we have discovered, even if yours has grown a little snug around the thighs and the plumbing has started to smell like Boy Scout camp.

As the final regular season in Texas Stadium begins tonight, it’s doubtful that the Cowboys or the visiting Philadelphia Eagles will be moved to weep. The old place stopped awarding nostalgia points about nine years ago, when the toilets froze and the upper deck began leaking.

Still, the Eagles and Cowboys have provided their moments. Like the 1989 game, when Cowboys coach Jimmy Johnson claimed that Philly coach Buddy Ryan had placed a bounty on the heads of quarterback Troy Aikman and kicker Luis Zendejas.

According to Zendejas, a friend on the Eagles had alerted him that Ryan was offering $200 to the special-teamer who laid out the Cowboys place kicker and $500 for kayoing Aikman, though if I remember Zendejas’ work here correctly, $200 seems much too high.

Another classic was the 1980 game, often overlooked in the pantheon of Sundays that altered the history of the franchise. The game fell on the final weekend of the season, and a Cowboys victory would give both teams a 12-4 final record.

The NFC East title and a bye in the postseason’s opening round would have to be decided by a tiebreaker. If the Cowboys won by 25 or more points, the title and bye were theirs.

Early in the fourth quarter, the Cowboys scored again to move ahead 35-10, sending Texas Stadium into a rare frenzy. But quarterback Ron Jaworski and the Eagles chipped away, narrowed the final losing margin to 35-27 and skipped merrily to the visitors’ locker room, where they celebrated, even though they lost, with champagne and glasses etched with "NFC East Champions."

Three weeks later in icy Philadelphia, the Eagles closed the deal and beat the Cowboys for the NFC championship 20-7. If that game had been played at Texas Stadium, who knows how that NFC title game, and the next, and the next, might have turned out?

This will be the 40th game at Texas Stadium between the two teams. The Cowboys have won 25.

Few of the recent Cowboys victories over the hated Birds, however, have come easy. The home team was ready to launch the 2000 season with balloons and party hats, as I recall, when Philadelphia won 41-14 in the infamous "pickle juice" game. The Eagles claimed that they handled the 109-degree on-field heat better than the Cowboys because they were drinking a special pickle juice and water concoction.

They winked. We wrote it. It’s been that kind of series.

We apologize to the Eagles for the state of the lame duck stadium. If you drink any pickle juice tonight, it’s probably leaked into your cup from one of the upstairs concession stands. And that soft, squishy sound from the rug that leads down the visiting locker room tunnel? Don’t ask.

Amazingly, and ironically, for the late Schramm, the old place still looks great on television. The blue backdrop, the twilight glow from the hole in the roof, the Cowboys’ classic home uniforms. Schramm, as it turned out, built football’s most well-known television studio, instantly recognizable.

Thus, the Eagles are the perfect guests to begin this final regular season under the hole in the roof. Better to help fumigate the place once they leave.

Two old and bitter rivals. No bounties necessary this time, but if someone wants to lay out Rowdy, the Cowboys’ sappy mascot, I’m good for $20.

Let the long, sentimental final season begin. But watch your head.